Among American League second basemen, the Yankees‘ Gleyber Torres ranked second in OPS, third in hits and RBI, and sixth in home runs this season.
Based on his final statistics, it would be difficult to tell that Torres struggled for much of the season’s first four months.
On Aug. 2, the 27-year-old Torres was hitting a career-low .233 and had been benched on two separate occasions for an apparent lack of hustle.
But Torres got hot at the perfect time.
He hit .306 over August and September, primarily from the leadoff spot, providing a solution for what had been a season-long revolving door atop the Yankees’ order.
And now, in what could be his final postseason with the Yankees, Torres is ready to carry that momentum into Game 1 of the ALDS against the Royals on Saturday night in the Bronx.
“Whatever happened in the season, forget it for right now,” Torres told the Daily News. “The postseason is the most important thing for us, and it’s not about people and it’s not about numbers. Just do the right thing for the team and just play well. Day after day, we have to do the job and finish strong.”
Torres finished with a .257 average, 15 home runs, 63 RBI and a .709 OPS this season, his seventh in the majors, all with the Yankees.
That statline, while still a tick below the two-time All-Star’s typical production, came at the end of a regular season in which Torres, an impending free agent, did not hit his first home run until May 2 — in his 32nd game.
“It’s a huge year for me, and how I started was a struggle, but I always believed in myself, and the group I have here always tried to help me in every situation,” Torres said. “At some point, after a lot of work and things like that, I started feeling good. The last month or so, I hit a little better. It’s good. I think I got better at the right time.”
Torres began the season as the Yankees’ leadoff hitter, filling in for DJ LeMahieu, who suffered a foot fracture during spring training. Torres hit just .200 without a home run through 12 games, however, and the Yankees turned to Anthony Volpe from there.
Volpe hit .242 with a .293 on-base percentage in 77 games as the leadoff hitter. The Yankees also tried Ben Rice and Alex Verdugo in the leadoff spot, but they, too, struggled to deliver consistent production as the tablesetter in front of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.
The answer ultimately proved to be Torres, who moved back to the leadoff spot on Aug. 16 and started all but one of the Yankees’ games there the rest of the season.
Torres hit .313 with a .386 on-base percentage, a .454 slugging percentage and a team-high 31 runs over that 39-game stretch, regularly working counts and delivering tough at-bats with Soto on deck and Judge behind him.
“He’s just really focused right now,” manager Aaron Boone said Thursday. “His last two months has just been focusing on knowing who [he’s] got hitting behind [him], and the focus has been as simple as, ‘Let me go up there and have a really tough at-bat.’”
Torres ended up hitting .283 with six home runs and 38 runs in 237 at-bats in the top spot of the Yankees’ batting order. The rest of the Yankees’ leadoff hitters combined to hit .231 with 10 home runs and 63 runs in 463 at-bats.
“Hopefully he’s saved the best for last,” general manager Brian Cashman said Thursday.
“He’s always been a professional, tremendously talented hitter. I’ve pondered, ‘Was it the trade deadline, and he got through that, and then all of a sudden decided [he could] settle in and relax?’ I really don’t have an answer to it, but the real question for me is, ‘What happened in the first four months,’ rather than, ‘What was he doing in the last two months?’ Because we’re used to seeing what he’s doing now.”
Torres spent two days on the bench after he failed to hustle out of the batter’s box on a ground ball in a June 25 loss to the Mets. He was also dealing with a groin issue at the time.
Boone then removed Torres from an Aug. 2 loss to the Blue Jays after the infielder jogged out of the batter’s box and watched what ended up being a 363-foot single off of the left field wall.
Defensively, Torres’ 18 errors led all second basemen.
“We’re all human, and this guy’s a competitor,” hitting coach James Rowson told The News.
“He’s all about what can he do to help the team win? Obviously, when you’re not going great, there are times where you may be a little down, but it’s just simply because you want to help the team win. … But one thing he never did was give up on himself. One thing he never did was lessen his work ethic or start to do less. If anything, it just drove him more and more.”
Rowson described Torres as the Yankees’ “engine” atop the order and credits the veteran for sticking with his routine to emerge from his months-long slump.
Torres, too, said his pre-game work, regular conversations with Rowson and consistent approach to his at-bats ultimately allowed him to find his swing in time for the postseason.
“At some point,” Torres said, “it worked finally.”
